The Development of Local Government

For several hundred years, Tipton was governed by the Parish Vestry, which by its very nature favoured ecclesiastical matters rather than the day-to-day administration of the town. A vestry meeting would be called by the churchwardens with the permission of the minister. The Vestry was the decision making body, named after the room where meetings were held.

In the early years of the 17th century, The Poor Law, consisting of a series of Parliamentary Acts came into effect. It defined how a parish would care for the poorer members of society who were in need of financial or other assistance. The law was administered at Vestry meetings that were attended by the parish ratepayers who could vote by a show of hands. The Poor Law was replaced by Poor Law Unions in 1834 (Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834) and Tipton became part of the Poor Law Union of Dudley, which also included Rowley Regis and Sedgley. The principal Dudley Union Workhouse and the Board Room were in Dudley. The union also used the old workhouse at Sedgley and the old workhouse at Tipton, which was in an old half-timbered building in Church Lane.

The first meeting of the governing body, the Board of Guardians was held in Dudley Town Hall on 15th October, 1836. It had ten members from Dudley, eight members from Sedgley, six members from Tipton, and four from Rowley Regis. Tipton’s first Guardians of the poor were Philip Williams, John York, Richard Haines, Richard Nicklin, Simeon Round, and Thomas Morris.

In June 1832 the town’s first cholera epidemic began. The population at the time was around 15,000. There were 1,452 cases of the disease, affecting nearly ten percent of the inhabitants. There were 404 deaths before the disease disappeared. The last local case was reported in Dudley on 29th November. A national relief fund had been set up to help sufferers. Tipton received £929 from the fund which was shared among the sufferers.

On 3rd August, 1832 a Board of Health or Sanitary Committee was set up at a Vestry meeting to deal with the cholera epidemic. The Board was given a working capital of £300. At a Vestry meeting on 14th September it was noted that a public subscription had been organised to help sufferers and that a management committee had been appointed. The members were as follows:

Cholera returned to Tipton in 1848. From October of that year, until December 1849, there were 113 deaths in the town, from the disease.

On 21st May, 1855, under the terms of the 1848 Public Health Act, a Local Board of Health was formed by Order of Queen Victoria in Council. The first meeting of the Local Board of Health was held on 10th September, 1855 at the Old Workhouse in Church Lane. Meetings continued to be held there until the opening of the Public Offices in Owen Street. The 24 members were:

The following officers were appointed at the first meeting: